Public transport in South East London is pretty good, but it is not as good as the rest of London. The peoples of South East London have long suffered this inferior treatment under the all-pervasive Transport for London (TfL). Our grievances are:

Lack of underground trains – The only part of the network which reaches the South East is the DLR. One solitary line is poor in comparison to North London. Although it is balanced out by the overland trains operated by South Eastern. However the second grievance is:

The inability to use pay-as-you-go Oyster Cards on said trains – The Oyster card is a great boon for Londoners. It allows for cheap and convenient travel on all forms of transport – except for trains in the South East. You either have to queue for a ticket or get a Travelcard (for unlimited use during the day / week / month). This is fine if you made a lot of journeys, but annoying for one-off trips.

The situation is more confusing for visitors and tourists. There are already enough lines, ticket types and zones without the added confusion of not being able to use your Oyster card on certain parts of the network. It an unnecessary hindrance and disincentive to those wanting to visit.

Oyster Redemption

However, on 04 January 2009 the Oyster Card situation was remedied. Pay-as-you-go is now available on South Eastern trains! The people would have rejoiced in the streets – except most had to return to work after Christmas and they would have slipped on the ice anyway.

A New Dilemma

There is a dilemma for those travellers who don’t commute every day. It is the choice between a using a pay-as-you-go Oyster or a Travelcard (£25.70 a week). If you want to save money by not buying a Travelcard, you have to spend less than £3.67 a day. However, there are situations where this may not be the case:

Unplanned and unexpected journeys – making a few unplanned journeys in a week will wipe out the savings from using pay-as-you-go.

Forgetting to touch out the Oyster Card – will cost you £4 straight away. You could phone up TfL to get a refund, but they are unsympathetic and assume that you were out to cheat the system.

All Londoners face the dilemma of capping their transport costs but forgoing a potential (but risky) gain. Interestingly, the very same kind of choice has been studied extensively in Economics, look up “risk premium” and “certainty equivalence”. In short, most people are risk adverse and will pay a premium to get rid of risk. In this case, that means getting a Travelcard.

Unintended Consequences

The station I use most for getting into central London is New Cross. It takes just 15 minutes and there are many trains per hour. An entirely un-noteworthy station, but to me it means that I’m not too far from home.

If you arrive late in the evening, you will see one of two men who stand outside the station who offer £1 to buy back your day Travelcard. The trade benefits all parties, except for TfL. However, the introduction of Oyster pay-as-you-go has removed any incentive to buy a one-day Travelcard.

Two men have been deprived of their livelihood. Is there not a moral duty for TfL / the government / society to compensate these men?

The blog has been overhauled and the changes are not merely aesthetic. I’m going in a new direction, because I’m no longer “far far away from Scouseland”. I’ve been in London for over a year. I no longer feel the culture shock that I wrote about while I was in China, because I do feel at home here. And Liverpool is actually just a two hour train journey away.

Gone are the greens and pinks of the old site. They were from a different era. The new colour scheme of grey-on-grey reflects the recessionary days that we live in. A lot of the content has been updated:

After a year of living in London, my piano has been transported from Liverpool into my flat.

Originally, I thought that there would not be enough room in the flat. I was right, there is just a foot of room between my bed and the piano. There’s not even enough room for a music stand, I have to tape the sheet music to the wall. There’s also no room for a stool. I have to sit on the speaker, boasted by a copy of Shakespeare’s complete works, so that I can sit at the correct height.

Space isn’t the biggest issue, what I lack most is time. I’ve talked about the London time-vortex before. It is clichéd but I have met many grade 8 musicians who don’t have the time/inclination/space to play anymore. It’s a shame. Were all the hours of practice wasted? Why do it in the first place? Pushy parents? A better personal statement for university entry?

I’m not being critical of the pushy parents because I’m (secretly) jealous. I’d rather be a retired grade 8 pianist than a struggling grade 2 adult learner.

The real answer is to enjoy the learning experience and not to worry about the end result. Or I could concentrate on an instrument that I can already play – the guitar.